• Friday-What'sUP February 8 - 09:14 pm

Michigan Tech's Winter Carnival is always a busy time on campus, but I'd venture to say that Wednesday night, when they hold the "all nighter" for the last push on building the snow statues, is probably the busiest time of the whole week. This year's theme was, "Heroes And Villains Find Their Powers In These Frozen Winter Hours." We were lucky enough to have a set of roving reporters on campus Wednesday night to snap some shots of the statues in progress and then another roving reporter on Thursday morning who took some photos of the same statues, so we get to show you the progress that was made.

The night time photos come to us from, Paul and Nathalie Brandes, better known as Capt. Paul and Dr. Nat. They braved the cold (remember they live in Texas now) to share their photos with us.

The day time photos were taken by Bob Gilreath, when he set out on a lunch time walk around the campus to view the work that had taken place overnight.

The photos are set up so there is a night time shot, then a day time photo of the same statue, so you can truly see how much they are perfected overnight. If you're interested in seeing the results of the judging and a photo of each of the winning statues, you can find all that information over on the Michigan Tech Winter Carnival 2013 webpage.

Special thanks to our "reporters" for the great teamwork in getting these photos for us to enjoy!

Those students sure do work hard!! Looks like Paul & Nat are enjoying themselves and sharing it with us, too!!

Love all the pictures today!!

So much talent and imagination at work/fun!

Great work by all.

I always get homesick when I see the winter carnival pictures.

Super...Super-Superior Pics! I always enjoy these snow statue photos.
Thanks guys and Dr Nat for sending them in.

I wouldn't say "brave the cold" Mary; it was actually quite nice walking around Wednesday evening, we just had to come in early because we'd been up since 4 am that morning!! ;-)

Walking around that evening with friends from my MTU days really made me miss all the foolery we used to have on that night. Even just driving around Houghton in snow yesterday was a real treat. We spent most of yesterday wandering the new AE Seaman Mineral Museum now that it is 99% done and I must say if you haven't had the chance to visit, please do. What an amazing job the staff there has done to make this truly a world-class museum!

Today, it's off to Copper Harbor and Tech Hockey this evening. I want to soak up as much Copper Country as possible before returning to Purgatory on Sunday.....

Capt Paul, Dr Nat and Bob - thank you for the perfect start to my day today! I watch the statue progress on the MTU cams, but always wish I was there in person at the end! You guys brought me my wish this year.

Great photos guys. I've often said the next time I
make it to Winter Carnival I am going to try out
some of the new high contrast photography
techniques and software. When at Tech from '72 to
'76 I was a staff photographer for the Lode and
Yearbook (and the Winter Carnival Magazine - is
that still published?) Taking statue pics was
always a huge challenge, especially on overcast
days. And this was WAY before the digital age of
photography.

Capt Paul:

What's your route home? Coming down I-35? I'll
meet you somewhere in Des Moines if I can talk you
into getting a case of Ambassador "Take & Bake"
pizzas and maybe a couple of 24 inch Subs. Or
better yet, come through the Quad Cities and I'll
REALLY make it worth your while. ;)
The Subs probably wouldn't make it all the way
here. And I'm not talking about spoilage.

Sorry DA, but we flew into into Hancock and flying back out Sunday. But, Dr. Nat and I are coming back to the UP this July for a few weeks, so we may just take you up on your offer to visit (though we won't have any Ambassador goodies with us....)And you're correct in that spoilage wouldn't be the issue!! ;-)

Even though I shot the nighttime photos for Mary with my digital point/shoot, I used my film camera to also shoot the all-nighter as well as the statues Thursday and our trip to up the Peninsula today. They are some things digital is good for, but it's still awfully hard to beat film for certain things.

I figured you probably didn't drive almost 24
hours each way for just a long weekend. But a guy
can dream, especially when it potentially involves
an Ambassador Submarine sandwich.

What I actually meant to refer to was High Dynamic
Range digital effects. With the computerized
ability to stitch multiple shots together, you can
now take several shots of the same scene while
bracketing the exposures. The several exposures
are overlaid for some fantastic effects. I've
always thought it would be a perfect technique for
bringing out the detail of the snow statues.

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